New Crew Less Than A Day From Launching to Sta…

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin are in Kazakhstan less than a day away from launching to the International Space Station. They will blast off atop the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft Thursday at 4:40 a.m. EDT for a six-hour ride to their new home in space.

Image above: At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 57 crew members Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos (left) and Nick Hague of NASA (right) pose for pictures in front of their Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft Sept. 26 during final pre-launch training. Image Credit: NASA.

They will meet their Expedition 57 crew mates aboard the orbiting lab after their Soyuz crew ship docks to the Poisk module at 10:44 a.m. Commander Alexander Gerst and Flight Engineers Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Sergey Prokopyev will greet the new duo when the Soyuz hatch opens around 12:45 p.m.

The five-person crew will gather inside the Zvezda service module for a traditional crew greeting ceremony as family and mission officials on the ground offer their well-wishes. Shortly afterward, the two new crewmates will participate in a safety briefing then begin several days of familiarization with station systems.

The Space Station Transits Our Sun

Image above: This composite image, made from nine frames, shows the International Space Station, with a crew of three onboard, in silhouette as it transits the Sun at roughly five miles per second, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018. Onboard are Commander Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos. The trio will soon be joined by Nick Hague of NASA and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, who are scheduled to launch on October 11 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Image Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky.

NASA TV begins its live broadcast Thursday at 3:30 a.m. as the crew counts down to its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. NASA TV will be back on the air at 10 a.m. four orbits later as the Soyuz spacecraft approaches the station for docking. Finally, live coverage of the hatch opening and crew greeting begins at 12:15 p.m.

Image from International Space Station of the Eye of Hurricane Michael

Image above: A view of the eye of Hurricane Michael taken on Oct. 10, 2018 from the International Space Station currently orbiting Earth. The photo was taken by astronaut Dr. Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, who began working with NASA as a Flight Surgeon in 2006. In 2009, she was selected as a NASA astronaut. Image Credit: NASA.